him well, you know, and i mean that without joking, without any irony. some people took it as some kind of threat to putin but, in fact, he's just talking to that idea, that, you know, he's all over russian media, that joe biden is old, and that age may have been behind his comments, kate. >> great to see you, matthew. thank you very much. thank you so much for joining us at this hour. i'm kate bolduan. john king picks up right now. ♪ welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington, thank you so much for sharing what is a very packed news day with us. the russian president wishes his american counterpart good health, "without irony" he insists, the new comments from vladimir putin are in response to an interview in which president biden said he considers putin a killer and biden promises the russian leader will pay a price for 2020

election interference. here at home today, new covid tremors, 770,000 americans filed for first time unemployment benefits last week, a week to week increase and it's more proof of the pandemic's continuing wrath. plus, the case count, and its trajectory is, again, causing alarm. 17 states on the u.s. map now trending in the wrong direction. air travel topping more than a million passengers for seven straight days. the president later today delivers remarks on the vaccine race. one in eight americans are fully vaccinated, 1 million shots is a goal the president wanted to meet, and perhaps today, 40 days ahead of his campaign promise. progress, yes, but some jitters too. this morning the biden health team warns variants, and vaccine hesitancy, could pull the country down into another covid spiral. and there was this. listen, the tense fight between dr. anthony fauci and senator rand paul over masks and if

wearing one still matters once more americans are vaccinated. >> when you talk about reinfection, and you don't keep in the concept of variants that's an entirely different ball game. that's a good reason for a mask. >> you're making your policy based on conjecture. >> no, it isn't based on conjecture. >> you want people to wear masks for another couple years. >> no. >> you've been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show. >> no, masks are not theater. masks are protective. >> you see the fight right there. that is the tension right now, the tension right now. if you look at the numbers, though, they back up dr. fauci and the other health experts saying let's be cautious, at least for a while longer, and let's look at the case timeline right now. 58,480 new infections yesterday way down from the beginning of the year, big spike january 1st, way down, but look at that red line, seven day average, essentially a flat line, a

plateau ticking up a little bit in recent days but a flat line a at a level public health experts say is too high. trend map, 17 states in orange or red. that's the wrong direction. orange and red means more covid infections now than compared to the data one week ago. 17 states heading up, two of them with 50% more new infections or higher more new infections this week than last. 20 states holding steady, 13 in green trending down. this is not an encouraging map. it's not horrible, but it is not encouraging. the top five states, as you look at it, alabama, up 90% this week compared to last week. delaware up 52%. michigan is up, montana is up. new hampshire is up. these are the top five states in terms of their seven-day average of new infections. heading in the wrong direction. the death timeline, everyone, is horror, but the death timeline trend line is coming down a little bit, 1,173 deaths yesterday. it's starting to come down, horrifically high, above a thousand.

the question is, how quickly do americans get vaccinated? 12% fully vaccinated across the united states, 22% partially vaccinated, one of the two shot vaccine, progress being made in part because of this, go back, you see the biden inaugural, beginning of this chart, 900,000 vaccinations on that day, up now, 2.5 million is the seven-day average right now. it is possible that today we will hit 100 million vaccines since the biden inauguration, if not today that will come tomorrow, the numbers are going up right there. why are they going up? in part because the supply chain has improved. again, january 26th there were 10 million vaccines going out to the states. right now, 16 million vaccines going out directly to the states and the tribes. there's even more than that in the pipeline. when you look at it this way. the administration says it's also sending 6 million vaccines out to pharmacies, community health centers, other federal supply chain if you will, the rest goes to states, tribes and territories. this week, 22 million doses out there. more vaccines, but this morning

on capitol hill one member of the biden team did acknowledge even though there's more supply in the system getting up the delivery system, how can i get an appointment? where do i go? is there somebody there to give me a not? that, dr. david kessler says, still an issue. >> i think we've all been frustrated getting appointments, people staying up throughout the night refreshing their computers. this was a mad dash at getting this out. and what you see is just very real, there's a real commitment at the state level, at the federal level to improving those information systems. >> let's get insights now, with us to share expertise, dr. celine gounder. it's good to see you. i want to start by going back to the latest exchange between dr. rand paul, senator rand paul,

he's an ophthalmologist, and dr. fauci, who has been the nation's premier expert on infectious diseases. is he wearing the masks for show, or is senator rand paul dreadly wrong? >> dr. fauci is not wearing a mask for show. i also have been vaccinated as a health care provider seeing patients at the hospital, i continue to wear a mask and that is not for show. we continue to do this because we have seen the rise of these variant strains, some of which are more infectious, some of which are more deadly, and while the vaccines remain effective for now as the virus continues to mutate that may not remain the case. and so it's really important that we continue to protect ourselves and to protect others. >> and so let's walk through the other big issues, you dealt with them during the transition, the administration is dealing with them now, one of them is what guidance should you give to schools? there have been studies that show the current guidance is

keep students six feet apart in schools, studies showing that three feet work, especially at the public school level, the administration saying that would be a game changer, they don't have the space to bring all the kids back to school if it's six feet, a contentious exchange this morning between senator susan collins of maine and the cdc director, listen. >> when we discussed this issue recently i really detected a lack of a sense of urgency on your part. we have got to get the schools reopened. and you've presented no timeline. >> this is an urgent issue. i understand the mental health challenges. i understand the educational challenges. the food insecurity. we are actively looking at our guidance to update it to address that science. >> even dr. fauci said recently that the studies look good. cdc has to make the final decision. there does seem to be a growing commentary if you will, are they moving too slowly? >> so this past year really has

been a crash course in learning about the coronavirus and what we have learned is that this is an aerosol spread or airborne spread virus which means it spreads through the air and this six foot versus three foot difference is really about droplet spread so droplets do drop down within six feet but if what you're really dealing with is something that spreads through the air, you don't necessarily want to have crowds of people packed together, but at the same time what really matters to prevent transmission at that point is masks and ventilation and it could be as simple as opening a window. but in other places it might mean air filtration. but that six versus three foot difference really is less important in this context. >> another giant yes, we've discussed it before, is more access to testing, rapid testing, less expensive testing. it's key to getting people back to the office, it's key, obviously, it would help as well with schools, with students and administrators and teachers and

everybody in the building. dr. micah mena at harvard said this is great but doesn't see progress in developing the testing platforms. the states don't just need money and advice in the cdc, the states need the tests to be available. is there a lag or where is the holdup in getting more quick reliable rapid tests on the market? >> well, another major holdup has frankly been how the fda approves these tests and dr. mena and others have been very much at the forefront of asking the fda to create different pathways for approval for a screening test so that's just the person who's out in the community who feels well versus what we call a diagnostic test, that's if somebody feels sick who might be in the hospital and those are very different contexts in which to be use ago test and the good news is that this week the fda did announce that they are going to be changing the way that they look at these tests.

and so i do think that will help open up some of these bottlenecks. >> that sounds hopeful. dr. gounder, grateful for your expertise and insight. appreciate it very much. up next for us the fbi releasing dramatic new video footage from january's capitol insurrection showing the violence police officers nationed that day. the general for car insurance, and we all thought you were losing it, so we left you deep in the woods? turns out you were right about the general. i just misjudged them based on their commercials. they're actually a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. i'm pretty sure i said all of that. our bad, let's get out of here. five more minutes, my skunk is almost done. oooh, is that what i smell? for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage - make the right call - and go with the general.

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the fbi this morning releasing brand new video from the capitol insurrection in an attempt to help identify and arrest more suspects. our senior justice correspondent evan perez poring through the footage. >> reporter: this is from tens of thousands of hours of video that the fbi has been frankly struggling to get through and to figure out and identify some of these people who assaulted police officers who were part of this insurrection and so these ten video clips that the fbi released today show just how horrific the assaults were.

they've already arrested 65 and these are ten additional people essentially the most wanted that they're still looking for. what these videos show is these rioters using everything they had, including batons that they had taken away from officers, shields, riot shields they manned to wrest away from hands of police officers. in some video you see one rioter grabbing the officer's helmet and slamming his head against a doorjamb. you see a chemical spray they were using to protect people inside the capitol, the lawmakers, and you see fire extinguishers being sprayed on a line of police officers to protect the people inside the building. this is a sustained assault that went on for hours and hours, began around 1:00 p.m. some of the most horrific assaults you see on some of this video, john,

is from around 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. hours of fighting hand to hand with these insurrectionists is what these officers went through. one of the things we've seen, john, is a sort of rewriting of what happened on that day, some of the lawmakers whose lives that these officers were trying to protect have started saying essentially that this wasn't so bad, that these were people who were -- police officers. that's not what this video shows and it's important for people to see that. >> amen to that. it's very important for people to see it and we hope the release of the video helps the fbi, they're still in this search that's going to take weeks and weeks and more. evan perez, grateful for the hustle on those videos. it shows the truth, despite what some people are trying to rewrite. a bit more on that later. atlanta police are calling a series of deadly shootings despicable acts of violence but stopping short of labeling these

murders hate crimes. investigators say they're looking into what motivated the 20-year-old gunman who opened fire at three businesses, killing eight people, six of them asian women. the gunman is claimed to have a sex addiction and he told police the spas were a temptation he wanted to eliminate. but the murders come amid a horrific wave of crimes against harassment of asian-americans. new information showing one of the police captains you saw on this program yesterday discussing the arrest at a news conference himself helped spread anti-asian sentiment. cnn's natasha chen live for us in georgia. natasha? >> reporter: well, john, we are learning that captain jay baker, the spokesperson, the public information officer for the cherokee county sheriff's office allegedly posted back in april of last year on facebook photos of a customized graphic t-shirt that said covid-19 imported from china with the word china

spelled c-h-y, hyphen, n-a. claiming china for the virus, for the pandemic, when we saw with that language was a lot of anti-asian sentiment, anti-chai these people, anti-asian in general. that post raised questions when cnn reached out to captain baker he said no additional comment and this comes on the heels of statements he made during a press conference yesterday giving information about this investigation. someone asked him at the podium whether in the interview it seemed that the suspect was remo remorseful or understood the gravity of his actions and captain baker did response by saying that the suspect seems to be very fed up, at the end of his rope, and was having a really bad day which has garnered some criticism from the public about characterizing the

suspect as, you know, somebody who should be humanized or, you know, oversimplifying the motivations behind what he did. there are questions right now, and we will continue to try and reach out to the sheriff's office for comment, john. >> natasha chen, grateful for your reporting as we continue to track the horrific case and these questions for captain baker, legitimate questions. georgia shootings are getting high-level attention here in washington today, president biden moments ago issuing an order for flags to be flown at half staff to honor the eight victims. tomorrow the president and vice president will travel to atlanta for conversations with asian-american community leaders, on capitol hill today the wave of hate and attacks directed at asian-americans is the focus of a house committee hearing. the chairwoman of the congressional asian pacific american caucus says former trump's rhetoric about the coronavirus contributed to the spike. >> even though donald trump is no longer president i believe the most recent round of

anti-asian attacks are the aftermath of one year of hateful attacks, and four years of ugly comments about immigrants and people of color. >> sun ling kim joins us from capitol hill. a high priority for this hearing, to raise the issue to have a national conversation about what is horrific, and not just in atlanta, it's been going on for months and months. are there concrete plansi for legislative attempts to do something about it? >> reporter: the main priority right now is certainly awareness. let's underscore how remarkable this hearing was obviously scheduled before the horrific shootings in atlanta but this is the first congressional hearing of its kind since 1987. asian-american lawmakers say this is the first step to combatting discrimination to

raising awareness, to showing and documenting to the world that this is a serious problem, that this is a problem that has arisen for the last year since the pandemic, but that anti-asian racism, harassment, discrimination has been going on for generations in america, and now the focus is really coming onto this point. in terms of legislation the house has passed, in the last several months, resolutions showing resolutions that condemn anti-asian discrimination which has also become kind of a -- you know, a lightning -- or a lightning point, or a contentious issue over the last several days of representative grace main the lead sponsor of it has specifically been calling out house republican lawmakers who voted against that resolution. it's an issue that's coming to the fore in front of this congress and we'll be watching really closely what president biden and vice president kamala harris say tomorrow on their trip to georgia. we've seen so much over the last

year, particularly at this issue, that words do matter. from the president of the united states on down, whether it's the rhetoric that was coming from former president trump, and what president biden has been saying particularly on this issue for the last couple of weeks. >> let's follow up on that point and let's first show the statistics, which are horrific and you're right they deserve more attention. more than 3,795 incidents reported of hate, women report two times more than men. businesses are the primary side of discrimination. california, new york, washington and texas highest states with incident reports. the the hate crimes up 149%. you mention words matter. i want you to listen to the current president and vice president. these are comments they've made in the last 24 hours and obviously they will be in atlanta tomorrow. listen. >> i've been speaking about the brutality against

asian-americans for the last couple months and i think it's -- it is very, very troubling. >> we're not yet clear about the motive but i do want to say to our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people. >> words do matter. you yourself have been subject to this hate in social media and other formats. we have had conversations previously on the program when the former president of the united states says china virus or says hateful things like kungflu, how much does it matter when you hear a president and vice president speaking out immediately and "b" saying we're changing our schedule to go and talk about this. >> reporter: the examples are really set from the top. any president of the united states really has a role among so many other things in setting kind of the moral tone and the moral standard for this country. and certainly you have a lot of

lawmakers saying -- and pointing to the rise in reported crimes saying president trump with his rhetoric about the coronavirus pandemic had inspired a lot of this harassment and discrimination over the last year so that's why words really do matter and that's why kind of this show of support immediately from, you know, the president, the vice president and lawmakers on down are critical to the asian-american community right now. >> seung min kim, grateful for your reporting and insights, thank you. >> up next for us, vladimir putin matches to joe biden after the american president says the russian leader is -- a killer. and reimagining, her 4 acre slice of heaven. it's not hard to tell she's the real deal. renae runs with us on a john deere 1 series tractor, because out here, you can't fake a job well done.

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this important covid news just in to cnn, a go ahead moments ago from a critical european vaccine regulator. a go ahead with the astrazeneca vaccine. saying it's safe and effective, 60% effective in clinical trials and in its limited real world view so far but the agency says it cannot flatly rule out a link between the vaccine and blood clot cases that have come up in europe among several people who did get that vaccine. several nations paused administering the vaccine because of those cases.

again, the emergency -- the european medical agency saying giving its go ahead to resume that vaccine use. today this simple wish from the russian leader vladimir putin to president joe biden. >> translator: what would i answer him? i would tell him be healthy. i wish him good health. i say this without irony. without jokes. >> that there is trade mark putin. he went on to criticize the united states on issues with slavery and nuclear weapons in world war ii. it was putin's counter to joe biden's broadside, calling putin a killer. >> director of national intelligence came out with a reported to saying that vladimir putin authorized operations during the election to denigrate you, support president trump, undermine our elections, divide our society. what price must he pay?

>> he will pay a price. i've -- we had a long talk, he and i. i know him relatively well. and the conversation started off, i said i know you and you know me. if i establish this occurred, then be prepared. >> you said you know he doesn't have a soul. >> i did say that to him, yes. and his response was, we understand one another. i wasn't being a wise guy. i was alone with him in his office. that's how it came about. it was when president bush said i looked in his eyes and saw a soul. i said i looked in your eyes and i don't think i have a soul. and he looked back at me and said we understand each other. look, most important thing dealing with foreign leaders in my experience, and i've dealt with an awful lot of them over my career, is just know the other guy. >> so you know vladimir putin. you think he's a killer? >> uh-huh. i do. >> so what price must he pay? >> the price he's going to pay, you'll see shortly. i'm not going to -- by the way, we ought to be able -- that

expression, watch and chew gum at the same time, places where it's in our mutual interest to work together. that's why i renewed the start agreement with him. that occurred while he's doing this, that's in the interest of humanity that we diminished the prospect of a nuclear exchange. >> joining our conversation, jill dougherty, a global fellow at the woodrow wilson center. good to see you, jill. you understand putin. covered him a long time. in his snark, his snide, about wishing joe biden health, you see something important. >> oh, yeah. well, number one, i take from this is, you know, when vladimir putin gets angry a lot of the way he expresses that is exactly what you said snide, snarky, and this is kind of a bit of trolling that first line especially, be healthy, i wish you health. that's -- that's pretty -- that's a lot of trolling. but seriously, when he gets into

it he says he really laid in, in fact when i heard that video, i was quite surprised. he said look at what americans did with the native americans, indians. look at what they did with black people. and he even used the phrase in english, black lives matter, which i haven't heard him say before. and then he talked about hiroshima and dropping the bombs. he's saying you think, you know, we're bad? i'm bad? look at yourself. and that's where he's kind of schoolyard, you know, takes one to know one type of comment. but what he is saying, i think he is genuinely angry. i think, john, that they feared in the beginning, well maybe there was a way to do something. they got the new start agreement extended, but now i think there's very little expectation on the russian part that really they're going to accomplish much of anything. they're being blamed, you know, solar winds, the dni report.

so it is really looking very bad for relations. >> it certainly does look very bad. you have these two leaders, putin more so than biden, but both of them who are very proud, who pride themselves on being tough guys if you will and strong on the international stage. you mentioned the next move comes from the united states, unless putin does something provocative we expect some response to the hacking. we expect -- the president said there will be a response shortly to the election meddling. are there tangible things the united states can do to sort of put pew contutin back on his he prove we will punish you or is this likely more symbolic. >> i do think it will be symbolic. i think it's the question of how obvious will it be? he said you will see. that would mean the public will see something that looks like the united states responding. they can do certainly things that are asymmetric. they can send a message to putin in a way that the world public

won't even know but putin will understand. so i think there are a lot of messages being sent here and, you know, john, you know politics and i think that you've got a couple of men who got domestic considerations. vladimir putin has really important parliamentary election coming up in the fall. there are a lot of efforts right now to win that for the party that putin represents. and here, you know, in the united states with joe biden, he has to look strong with russia. at the same time trying to deal with russia. so, you know, the domestic considerations are playing a role, i think. >> that's a fascinating moment. jill dougherty, grateful for your important insights. we'll continue the conversation as this place out. an arrest outside the vice president's residence and the evidence log is eye opening. but first, 90 million and counting as new stimulus checks are issued, those on the

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topping our political radar today the house is voting on two separate immigration bills today, one would provide a

pathway to citizenship for dreamers. the others would allow farm workers and their families to earn legal status through continued employment. alabama congressman mo brooks telling cnn he's strongly considering a run for the u.s. senate. he will make an official announcement on monday. brooks was among those leading the house effort to object to the election results on january 6th. he says he has spoken with the former president donald trump about running for the seat. now held by the retiring richard shelby. former trump adviser stephen miller is advising the congressman and will join him at monday's announcement. 31-year-old texas man facing weapons and ammunitions charge after being arrested outside vice president kamala harris's official residence here in washington yesterday. and the man, listen to this, had an arsenal in his car, an assault style rifle, more than 100 rounds of ammunition and multiple magazines. house republicans try to rewrite the history of the january insurrection by using a bill set to honor the police officers who fought to defend

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the d.c. metropolitan police for their response to the january 6th insurrection. 12 house republicans did not support the measure. the 12, you see them there, opposed using the word insurrection in the bill and one of them, congressman louie gom ert of texas tried to push an alternative measure that did honor the officers but had no mention of january 6th, no mention of the capitol attack. facts are facts. we all saw it. the violent insurrection was carried out by a pro-trump mob of wanting to -- members of the mob attacked police officers and some of them chanted hank mike pence. one of the congressman thomas massie of kentucky says i have a problem with the term insurrection. it could have implications with somebody's prosecution later. that if we give weight to the word insurrection that comes up in somebody's prosecution. melanie zinona joins us now.

congressman massey saying i don't want to adversely affect somebody's prosecution but aren't there some republicans who want to pretend that day never happened? >> what you're seeing here is republicans don't want to face the truth. no interest in finding out what actually happened and many of these same republicans voted to challenge the election results and they are culpable of spreading this big lie that led these mob of protesters to overrun the capitol. but i think the big picture here, john, is what you're seeing is, there is still a segment of the gop that is still so be-holden to donald trump and they would do anything to protect him and that really does not bode well for efforts to have a bipartisan commission to investigate the origins of january 6th. if they can't even agree on how to honor the police force that protected us that day how are they going to agree on looking at these things and giving it a thorough accounting of why these protesters were inspired to come and ransack the capitol in an

effort to overturn the election? and so i just think what you're seeing is this really broadening, widening gulf between republicans and democrats when it comes to january 6th. >> right, and just earlier today we had evan perez on the program, the fbi re-louising new videos of some of these insurrectionists, congressmen, attacking police officers, they said watch that video and see if they want to change the language of what to call this. this is so ridiculous that moments ago the leader of house republicans kevin mccarthy has to get asked a question like this. >> would you define january 6th as an insurrection? >> yes. >> a one-word answer, yes, which good for him, kevin mccarthy at least on this day willing to acknowledge undeniable facts but the bigger question, melanie, is that 12 republicans were allowed to do this, to circulate, this is the louie gomert started this, the alternative, no reference to january 6th, no reference to the attack on the

capitol. does the leader, and i think i'm giving the answer in the question, have control of his caucus? >> no, the answer is no, john. i mean earlier this week we actually reported that there is a behind the scenes fight over this strategy that conservatives are trying to push. it's not just opposing the gold medal bill. they've been forcing procedural votes. they've been requesting recorded votes on these typically noncontroversial bills and kevin mccarthy tried to make the case behind closed doors, this is counterproductive. we need to stay unified. we're trying to win back the house. let's keep you guys all together. we can't have you out there rogue, forcing these votes creating headaches really for everyone. it's not just democrats. republicans are also getting annoyed with these tactics. but annie bigs, the chairman in the freedom caucus, made it clear he was not interested, he, in fact, took a shot at kevin mccarthy over his visit to the border and said something along the lines of, well some of us lawmakers have been going to the border for years and didn't just show up there this week. that just shows you the tensions inside the conference and the

fact that kevin mccarthy does not have control over that right flank that's forcing all these delay tactics on the floor. >> if they want to fight over policy or fight over travel, fine by me, but fighting over facts is one of the problems we have in the country right now. melanie zanona, great reporting. before we go to break, the senate has just confirmed xavier becerra the secretary of health and human services, just barely. up next, the covid vaccine race, the challenge when someone is offered a vaccine shot and says no thanks. i think you better double them tots. no, this me was last year. i didn't get my madness last year, allergies don't have to be scary.madness this year. spraying flonase daily stops your bodylast year, from overreacting to allergens all season long.

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president biden today will highlight significant progress in the coronavirus vaccine rollout, the united states on track to soon hit 100 million vaccine doses administered since biden took office. the progress is undeniable. there also are some pockets of concern. take a look at these numbers, 30% of adults will not get the vaccine when it's available to them. among younger people, those 18 to 39 years old, 36% say no, thanks. and more than half of 2020 trump voters are saying no thanks to the covid vaccine. the cdc director says work needs to be done to combat this vaccine hesitancy. >> we need to understand the reasons for lack of vaccine confidence and we need to address them at the local level. we need to address vaccine

hesitancy with regard to its roots. is it because it's not convenient, because people are not deeming it safe, because they felt it happened too fast or they're worried about side effects. they need to hear this information from trusted messengers. >> so vaccine hesitancy, as you hear is one challenge, vaccine access in some places is another. mariah parker is the county commissioner from clark county, georgia, mariah, grateful for your time today. as we go through the vaccine hesitancy issue with the 18 to 39 community, you're in a college community. what is it when you encounter younger people who say -- what do they say, i don't trust it, i don't need it? >> you get folks that have that invincibility complex in this age group but as well getting people the up to date information about where they can get vaccinated. what the effects are. all those sorts of things, you know, because the eligibility requirements have been shifting in recent weeks and months, it's hard for people who may not go

see a doctor regularly or be plugged into our health care infrastructure on a regular basis can get the information they need to make that decision for themselves in the first place. >> and there's been a lot of effort from the beginning, especially because we know the disproportionate impact of the virus itself on communities of color, the ad council trying to reach out to those in the african-american community, the latino community to address hesitancy issues. listen to this piece of an ad campaign. >> you've got questions. and that's normal. the fact is, the vaccines are safe and effective. they're going to save lives. to get the latest on the covid-19 vaccines visit get vaccine answers.org because getting back to the moments we miss starts with getting informed. >> you're doing this every day. what is effective, and what isn't, in the community? in the sense, do advertisements like that help or does it have to be from somebody local, the district commissioner they voted for like yourself or a local pastor or the local pharmacist,

what works best? >> i think you hit the nail on the head, john, it really depends on having trusting connections with folks that are reaching out to make sure people are getting vaccinated. folks from the faith community, from their school district, folks in their neighborhood. folks that day -- i think it's been helping a lot, people sharing their selfies on social media to see their friends and their fellow church goers, their neighbors are all getting vaccinated so they see that folks in their community are getting the jab, and so we've been working on a program here to partner with folks doing local food distribution, nonprofits that are trusted in the community, to help get some information about, out about where you can get vaccinated, what the eligibility requirements are, as a way to bring in the personal touch that shows we care about you and we know you. >> parker, grateful for what you're doing. nice to meet people on the front lines doing their part in the community.

the cdc, awaiting new guidance about whether students in schools need to stay six feet apart or whether it's safe to be three feet apart. tune in tomorrow for that. don't go anywhere. brianna keilar kicks up our coverage right now. have a good day. hello, i'm brianna keilar, i want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. just in a major development in america's fight against the pandemic, we're now learning the cdc is expected to change its social distancing guidance for schools, recommending separation of three feet instead of six. so let's go now to elizabeth cohen on this. elizabeth, what impact is this going to have an reopenings? >> you know, i think there are several components that will fast track, that will make it easier for schools to reopen. and this is one of them. telling teachers and staff, hey, you don't have to keep the children six feet apart. you can do three